Compost Saga 2: In the garden, what should I know about composting?

You are convinced and you’re ready to buy your own composting bin. Then find below the basics to make is a success.

Black composting bins compost much quicker than green ones, because it absorbs more radiation and thus maintain higher temperatures and fades more slowly as well.

The size of your composting bin has to be adapted to the size of your garden. The bigger is your garden the bigger the bin must be.

If the bin is bigger than the capacity of your garden, it will remain mostly empty and will not work correctly.

Your bin should be placed on ground level and only on natural soil and never on cement or tiles, etc. The bin drains into the soil and only from natural soil the required organisms can enter the composting bin.

Beware to restraint the aeration in order to ensure enough humidity and to avoid that the material dries, which would slow down the process of composting. The aeration of the compost is made by mixing regularly the material inside your bin.

During the stirring be careful not to mix up the ready compost with the organic wastes you throw recently.

TIPs:

If a bin turns to anaerobic fermentation[1] and starts to smell this shows a dysfunction. In this case you restore the aerobic fermentation with the proper ventilation (by stirring the content) and by ensuring the proper proportions of nitrogen dioxide (ideal ratio = 1:30) in the compost.

The ideal PH for the composting process is the neutral 7. You can use a PH stabilizer, agricultural calcium (CaO). Specially treated, it raises the pH of the compost inside the bin, neutralizes the acidity and help to keep environment inside the compost bin not acidic.

[1] The anaerobic microorganisms produce chemicals that harm the quality of the compost because during the process of decomposition they produce hydrogen sulfide (and bin smells bad) and methane (harmful greenhouse gas).